" How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world." Merchant of Vawx, IF the faint twinkling of a candle's light was calculated to awaken so beautiful an idea in the mind of our great dramatist and poet, to what shall we liken that noble light which not only so far transcends the little candle in magnitude and beauty, and in the distance to which its beams are thrown, but whose mission is to protect and save,—which pierces the midnight gloom, lighting the seaman's path along the trackless deep, to warn Mm of the hidden shoal, the sunken rock, the beetling cliff—to be, as it were, " a light to his feet and a lamp to his path—to guide him to the haven where he would be?" It may be likened to religion's holy light, which reveals to man the road to Heaven, and warns him of the many hidden dangers on which moral shipwreck may befall him on his way.

So calculated, indeed, is the beacon-light to awaken elevated and even holy thoughts, that it seems somewhat strange so humble, and indeed unsuitable, a name as "lighthouse " should have been adopted to signify the shrine of so splendid a jewel, and especially as such buildings have rarely the appearance of a house at all. A tower, or more often a spire, their tall and graceful forms resemble, and accordingly their names in some' other European languages have such a signification—as the " Tour a fea," in the French, and the "Torre de luces," in the Spanish language. Their more frequent name is, however, taken from the Greek "Pharos;" the celebrated lighttower of Alexandria, erected there, on a small island of that name, by Ptolemy Philadelphus, about 300 years before the birth of Christ; thus " phare" in French, and, in our own language, the term " pharology" has been adopted to signify the science of lighting up sea-coasts with beacon or warning lights.

The most ancient light-tower of which there is any authentic record is the one above named, which endured for 1,600 years. Others were erected at Ostia, Kavenna, Apamea, and at Capio, or Apio, as recorded by Pliny, Strabo, and other writers.

The oldest existing light-tower is that at Corunna, in Spain, said to have been erected in the reign of Trajan, and now fitted with one of the finest modern lightapparatus.

The celebrated Colossus of Rhodes has also been supposed by some to have had a light at its summit, but on no certain evidence. Various ruins of towers on the coasts of Great Britain, and on the shores of Europe, have likewise been supposed to be the remains of ancient lighthouses ; and, if such be the case, they may be looked on as fitting emblems of the departed light of the earlier civilization of our race, which was followed by a long period of barbaric darkness.

The subject of pharology, although it may not be of universal interest, should at least be so to every Englishman who is sensible of the vast commercial intercourse between his island-home and the world around it, and of the immense effect of that intercourse in promoting the prosperity and advancement not only of his own country and its numerous dependencies, but directly and indirectly of the whole world.

The slight 'sketch, which is all that we can attempt, of this to us interesting subject, we will divide into the three heads under which it seems naturally to fall, namely— 1st.—The towers or buildings containing the lights.

2nd.—The lights themselves.

3rd.—The positions in which such lights are placed.

1. The Buildings.—The character of the buildings in which the beacon-lights are placed is dependent on their situation.

They may be placed on lofty cliffs at a considerable height above the sea, as at Flamborough Head and the North and South Foreland, in which case the building itself need not be lofty, but only of such peculiar shape and colour as to make it conspicuous Via. 1.—THE TOUR DE COBDUAN.

from the sea by daylight, and to make it easily distinguished from the dwelling-houses or other buildings in its neighbourhood. Or they may be situated on low promontories but little above the sea-level, as on the flat beds of shingle at Orfordness and Dungeness, where they must be raised to a considerable elevation, that the light by night and the building by day may be discernible at long distances from the land. Or they may be fixed on the isolated and even sunken rock, as the celebrated Eddystone in the English Channel, in which case the whole skill and science of the engineer must be expended, hot only on their foundations, but on their entire structure, to enable them to stand the mighty shocks of the ocean-waves.

Or, lastly, they may be required to stand in the very midst of the " great deep " itself, where not even a sunken rock will afford a founda- tion on which to build; and then they must be either erected on open work of piles, or on a floating-vessel, strongly moored to the ground below, many of which invaluable though non-locomotive craft may be seen around our coasts, warning the mariner from the treacherous sandbanks that are so numerous in our tidal sea.

The principal class of buildings of this description to be noticed are those of the third class above alluded to, which are erected on outlying rocks, or on softer ground in shallow water; for such edifices are invested with peculiar interest, from the skill and energy that have been engaged in their construction ; as being amongst the most striking illustrations of the conquest of mind over matter; and as being invested with a certain wild romantic interest from their isolated exceptional positions, eternally surrounded by the great watery waste, and cut off from the busy haunts of man.

The Tour de Corduan (Fig. 1). — Perhaps the first light-tower that has claim on our attention, as far as architectural grandeur is concerned, is the Tour de Corduan.

It is erected on an extensive reef at the mouth of the river Garonne, in France, and iO -O .TO 4-0 FIQ. 2.—THE EDDYSTONE.

serves as a guide to the shipping of Bordeaux and the Languedoc Canal, and, indeed, of all that part of the Bay of Biscay. It was commenced in the year 1584, and not completed until 1610. It is 197 ft. high, and around the base is a wall of circumvallation 134ft. in diameter, in which the lightkeeper's apartments are formed, somewhat in the style of the casemates in a fortification.

Its first light was obtained by burning billets of wood in a chauffer at the top of the tower, which was no doubt the mode by which all the earlier light-towers were illuminated.

It has since gone through all the gradations of improvement of the several modern discoveries, viz., from a fire of wood to one of coal, and the subsequent addition of a rude reflector; next, in about the year 1780, the substitution of improved reflectors and lamps; and lastly, in 1822, by the introduction of the dioptric apparatus, first proposed by our distinguished countryman SIK DAVID BKEWSTER, in 1812, and subsequently in France by M. FRESNEL.

The Eddystone (Fig. 2).—Of the British light-towers of this class, that on the Eddy- stone rock, 9 miles off the coast of Cornwall, is the most celebrated, although much larger ones have been since built on the same design. The first light-tower on these dangerous rocks was designed by Mr. Wis- STANLEY, and was formed of wood; it was commenced in 1696 and completed in 1698, It was 60 ft. high; but as the sea broke fairly over its top, its height was subsequently increased to 120 ft. In November, 1703, some considerable repairs were being executed, when the storm of the 26th of that month swept the entire edifice away, and Mr. WISSTANLEY and the whole of his assistants, 30 in number, unhappily perished on the occasion ; a proof of the danger and difficulty attending the construction of such works. Shortly after its destruction, the Winchelsea ship-of-war was wrecked t n these rocks, and most of her crew were drowned. In 1706, another tower, likewise of wood, was commenced under the direction of Mr. JOHN RUDYEED, of London, and was completed in 1708. This one lasted until the year 1755, when the whole edifice was destroyed by fire. The height of this tower was 92 ft., and the diameter at its base 23 ft.

The great importance of a light on these dangerous rocks having been long recognized by seamen, no time was now lost in replacing it, and Mr. SMEATON was intrusted with its re-erection. On the 12th June, 1757, the first stone of the present edifice was laid, and the last on the 20th August, 1759. The whole structure is 93 ft. in height, and has 26 ft. diameter at the base.

The first twelve feet above the rock is a solid mass of masonry, the stones being united to each other by means of stone joggles, dovetailed joints, and oak tree-nails.

This beautiful tower, which, after the lapse of more than a century, stands as firm as the rock on which it rests, has been the model of successive structures in similar positions.

The Bell Rock.—Amongst the chief of these light-towers is the Bell Rock tower, on the East Coast of Scotland, on a dangerous reef, right in the fairway to the Friths of Forth and Tay, which had long been a terror to mariners ; the task of erecting a durable edifice on this reef was a. still more difficult one than had been that in the case of the Eddystone, since there was a depth of 12 ft. of water over the rocks at every spring-tide.

All difficulties, however, were overcome, and a splendid stone tower, after the model of the Eddystone, was successfully erected under the direction of Mr. ROBERT STEVENSON, the engineer to the Lighthouse Board of Scotland. This tower is 100 ft. high, 42 ft. in diameter at the base, and 15 ft. at the top. The foundation having been excavated, the first stone was laid on the 10th July, 1808, and the light was first exhibited on the night of the 1st February, 1810.

Its base is of solid masonry to the height of 30 ft., at which height is the door for ingress and egress, and which is reached from the outside by a massive copper ladder. It cost 60,000?.

The Skerryvore.—Another coble specimen of sea-architecture, if we may use the term, is also to be found on the coast of Scotland.

—The Skerryvore Rocks on the coast of Argyleshire, 12 miles W.S.W. of the Isle of Tyree, were long known as the dread of seamen, owing to the numerous shipwrecks that had occurred on them, fatal alike to the vessels and their crews.

The Commissioners of the Northern Lighthouses had for many years entertained the project of erecting a light-tower on the Skerryvore reef, and with that object had visited it in the year 1814, in company with Sm WALTER SCOTT, who has given a graphic description of it in his " Diary." It was not, however, until the year 1834 that a minute survey of the reef was undertaken by that Board, and the work was not actually commenced before 1838. In illustration of the danger attending the construction of such edifices we will describe some details regarding the commencement of this light-tower.

The Skerryvore reef, which stretches over a surface of nearly 8 miles from W.S.W.

to E.N.E., is composed of the very hard igneous rock called gneiss, the surface of which is worn as smooth as glass by the perpetual motion of the water. In numerous places it rises above the surface of the water, forming small rocky islets, the principle one of which alone presents sufficient surface to form the base of a light-tower; and it is so small, that at high water little of it remains above the surface but a narrow baud of a few feet in width, and some rugged lumps of rock, separated from it by gullies, through which the sea almost incessantly plays. The cutting of the foundation alone, in this irregular flinty mass, occupied nearly two summers; and the blasting of the rock in so narrow a space, without any shelter from the flying splinters, was attended with much hazard.

In such a situation, of course, everything had to be provided beforehand, and transported from a distance; and the omission even of a little clay for the tamping of the mine-holes might for a time have stopped the works. Barracks had to be built at the workyard in the neighbouring island of Tyree, and also on the Isle of Mull, where the granite for the tower was quarried. Piers had to be built at both places, to facilitate the shipment and landing of materials ; and a small harbour or basin, with a reservoir and sluices for scouring the entrance, had to be specially formed, for the accommodation of the small vessel required to permanently attend on the light-keepers. A steam-tug had also to be provided, to expedite the transport of the building materials, and which also served, in the early stages of the work; as a floating-barrack for the workmen, in which service she and those on board he; had to incur many risks, the tug being moored off the rock on foul and rocky ground, on which the anchor often tripped.

In the summer of 1838, Mr. ALAN STEVENSON, the engineer who designed the tower, commenced by erecting a wooden barrack on the rock, as far as possible removed from the foundation ; but in the great gale of the 3rd November following, it was entirely destroyed and swept from the rock leaving nothing but a few twisted iron stanchions to mark its site. For the greater part of two seasons, the men then lived on board the vessel moored off the rock; at the end of which time they erected another wooden barrack, more strongly secured than the former one, and which fortunately endured through the winter's storms, until the com pletion of the building, and indeed till many ears afterwards, notwithstanding that, as Mr. STEVENSON describes it, they were often disturbed in their beds by the sea pouring ver the roof, by the spurting of the water through the doors and windows, and by the •ocking of the whole edifice on its supports.

The Skerryvore light-tower was completed in 1844. It is 138f ft. high, ex- ;lusive of the lantern, 42 ft. in diameter at :he base, and 16 ft. at the top. It was an idaptation of Smeaton's Eddystone-tower, with such modifications in the size and ;eneral arrangements of the building as were called for by the peculiar situation and other circumstances, while it embodied such improvements as later knowledge had suggested.

The tower contains a mass of stonework of about 58,580 cubic feet, being more than double that of the Bell Rock, and nearly five times that of the Eddystone. Its cost, including all the contingent and preliminary expenses, was 86,978/.

The other light-towers of this description most worthy of notice are the Bishop Eock, off Scilly, the New Smalls, that on the Hanois Rock on the Jersey coast, and perhaps that at Carlingford on the east coast of Ireland. The three first named have been all erected by the Trinity House, under the superintendence of the Messrs. DOUGLASS, who are now engaged on the difficult task of erecting a tower on the Wolf Rock off the Laud's End. The Carlingford tower was designed by Mr. GEORGE HALPIN, the inspector of the Irish lights ; it was first exhibited on the 20th December, 1830.

Its figure is that of a frustrum of a cone, 111 ft. high, and 48 ft. in diameter at the base.

Some idea may be formed of the difficulties in the way of erecting light-towers of this class, from the circumstance that in working at the tower on the Wolf Rock, 82 working hours is said to have been the whole time that was available to work on the rock during the year 1862. Some idea may likewise be formed of the tremendous strain to which they are subjected from the fact that, at Skerryvore, where an instrument to test the. force of the waves had been exposed, it was found to haye equalled, in the maximum case, no less than 6,083Ibs. on the square foot; also from the fact that, at the Bishop Rock Lighttower, off Scilly, a massive bell, which was fixed with strong iron supports, built into the masonry, at 120 ft. above the level of the sea, was struck with such force by a wave which ran up the tower, that it was wrenched from its position, while its iron supports were broken. It will be readily felt, then, that the greatest possible strength that human ingenuity can devise must be requisite to resist the impact of such enormous forces. This strength is obtained in the stone-towers by a solid mass of masonry, to a height of 30 ft. in some towers, above the sea-level, the stones being all dovetailed together, both laterally and vertically, and united by hydraulic cement, so that the stones cannot be separated without being broken, and the whole base is literally as solid and indivisible as if it were a natural, solid rock.

A novel class of towers has been designed and erected by Mr. ALEXANDER GORDON, consisting of iron plates bolted together.

There are several fine examples of his lighttowers at Jamaica, Bermuda, the Bahamas, and other places. They are well adapted for positions and countries where skilled labour and suitable materials are wanting.

Another description of light-tower, or lighthouse, deserving of notice, is that on the ingenious plan of Mr. ALEXANDER MITCHELL, supported on screw-piles. Buildings of this class are especially applicable to shallow waters, at the estuaries of rivers, and such-like situations, over flat, soft ground of mud or sand. The Maplin, at the mouth of the Thames, was the first of these, begun in 1838. It stands on nine piles, secured to as many iron screws, which were screwed down to a depth of 22 ft. into the sand (Fig. 3). These screws consist of a single turn of a flange, 4 ft. in diameter, on the lower end of the iron pile (Fig. 4).

Fio. 4.

They were fixed in nine consecutive days, under the personal direction of the blind inventor. The piles are secured in place and bound together by suitable ties, and the dwelling-room and lantern are placed above the reach of the sea, which breaks harmlessly through the open work of iron piles, &c., beneath. Similar buildings have been constructed at Fleetwood, Belfast, and other places.

Lastly, there remains to be described the floating-lights. It is, we believe, an axiom in pharology never to place a floating light where a suitable position can be had for a fixed building; the reasons being, that their lights must be comparatively small; that they are liable to drag their anchors in violent storms, and thus, by their change of position, to mislead instead of guiding, although this does not often happen; that they are much more expensive, requiring 11 men to work them, whereas 3 men are all that are necessary to occupy a first-class light-tower ; the cost of management of the former being about 1,3001. per annum, and of the latter 350Z.; also that they are much more troublesome, requiring to be periodically taken into dock to refit, on which occasions they have to be replaced by similar vessels. There are 51 floating lights on the coasts of the United Kingdom, being a greater number than appear in any other country, the United States of America having only 39 lights. These craft are in general ordinary-shaped vessels, and are now expressly built for the purpose. The floating light-vessels of Mr. GEORGE HERBERT'S design are, however, circular, and are moored from their centre of gravity. They have immense stability, and are comparatively motionless; they have been found to answer admirably where adopted for floating beacons, &c. (Fig. 5.) Light-vessels are ordinarily painted of a dark-red colour, to make them readily distinguishable from all other craft, and that colour, which is the opposite of green, being more conspicuous than any other on the surface of the water.

The greatest depth of water in which any of these vessels at present ride, is about forty fathoms, as is the case with the one at the station of the Seven Stones, between the Scilly Islands and Cornwall.

The lights on land, or lighthouses, which are at the highest elevation, with the distances they command in clear weather, are given in the following table, compiled from the general return published by the Admiralty :— .Year erected.

Height of Distances Laatetn at viMsk above High the Lights Water. are seen.

Feet lliles.

Lizard . . . 1751 224 20 Needles . . . 1786 469 27 Beachy Head . 1828 285 22 South Foreland 1793 372 25 Cromer . . . 1719 274 22 Flamborough Head 1806 214 19 Inchkeith . . 1804 220 18 Isle of May. . 1816 240 21 DunnetHead . 1831 346 23 Suraburgh Head 1821 300 22 Cape "Wrath . 1828 400 25 BarraHead . 1833 680 32 Kintyre . . . 1787 297 22 Mull of Galloway 1830 325 23 Calf of Man . 1818 375 22 St. Bee's Head . m& S33 23 Lundy Island . 1820 540 30 Cape Clear . . 1817 455 27 Clare Island . 1806 349 27 Skellig's Kock 1826 372 25 The figures which are appended, together with the above brief sketch, will, perhaps, give a sufficient general idea of the nature of the buildings which enclose and protect the beacon-lights that encircle our shores.

In our next Number we hope to give a description of those lights themselves..